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The Melbourne Hotel

This heritage-listed hotel, which has been renewed with a AUD 40 million reconstruction, is one of the city’s most iconic buildings. Inside, every one of the 73 rooms is different but the raw heritage rooms take the cake for featuring the beautifully aged walls of the 1897 structure.

Location

8/10

The Melbourne Hotel sits at the western end of Perth’s city centre and faces the QV1 building, a Harry Seidler-designed high-rise with a ground floor filled with a suite of eateries; Tiny’s is the standout for its creative menu and hip-yet-casual vibe (it also has an excellent wine shop, housing 300 listings, and vinyl records). Buses pass by regularly, including the free Red CAT (Central Area Transit) service, and Perth’s central train station is a five-minute walk from the hotel. Sights such as Kings Park and Elizabeth Quay are easy to reach, while a trip to the beach will take 15 minutes in a taxi at best. The airport is 12 miles away.

Style & character

8/10

The classic lattice and arches façade of this 120-year-old building gives way to a boutique-meets-design aesthetic that’s very easy on the eye. Peeled back layers of paint, brick and concrete, reveal authentically distressed walls that contrast with modern statement furniture in bright hues with gold accents. The glam hotel lobby is perfumed with a green tea fragrance, and leads to a shiny bar.

The feel is chic yet welcoming, perhaps because the hotel is owned by Mr Tan who has quite the eye and chose all the furnishings himself. He says the history of The Melbourne Hotel reminds him of The Raffles; it opened during Perth’s heady gold rush period and over the decades traded as a pub, live music haunt and nightclub.

Service & facilities

7/10

The hotel’s free-use, take-everywhere Handy smartphones are a dream, fitted with a local guide, free internet browsing and free local and international calls. Both reception, with staff eager to please, and the fitness centre are open 24 hours a day; the latter is fitted with motivating attractions such as cardio equipment you can stream Netflix on, and treadmills that allow you to race the person next to you. Another alluring quirk awaits those who book via the hotel website: they receive personally engraved luggage tags.

In keeping with many other new city-centre hotels, there is no pool, spa, sauna or library. There is no on-site parking either; for check in, there is a lane alongside the hotel, then valet-parking (AUD 39/£22), or self-parking nearby (AUD 18/£10).

Bar

Fitness centre

Laundry

Parking

Restaurant

Room service

Wi-Fi

Rooms

7/10

The interior space, housed in a heritage frame, has been engineered to let natural light in via shafts and overhead glass. Standard rooms fill the newly built section and enjoy the rare yet oft-wished-for ability to lever-open windows to access fresh air. In the compact bedroom, a clay-brown colour scheme is lifted by embossed towels. Mod-cons mean USB points aplenty, yet few standard power points. Pillows come in normal and plus-sized options and the bed linen is comfortable. There’s an unnerving rushing air sound in the petit but very useable bathroom, which comes with L’Occitane toiletries. On the upper floors facing Milligan Street, rooms enjoy interesting city views as well as free mineral water, and tea and coffee.

Food & drink

7/10

For a boutique hotel to have five food and beverage options – including a public rooftop bar – is as unexpected as it is welcome. The traditional British-style pub on the ground floor adopts the polished boards and shiny beer taps look. Around-the-corner queues for its neighbour, the first Ramen Keisuke Tonkotsu King in Australia, are testament to the brand’s popularity in Singapore and Japan. Similarly, the Japanese cream bun counter in the hotel’s inner conservatory often sells out before lunchtime. It’s in this area that breakfast is served; the delightful smoked salmon poached eggs come with grilled courgette, fresh dill and an edible flower.